Coping
by Amberion
Summary: Ranma/Matrix Crossover. Ranma could be humanity's last hope to escape the matrix, or its eventual destruction.
1. Too Much Confidence Can Kill A Man...

Coping  
A Ranma Nibonnoichi/Matrix crossover  
By: Amberion(amberion@gamespyarcade.com)  
  
Disclaimer: "Ranma Nibonnoichi" was written by Rumiko Takahashi,  
and is (c) Shogakukan, Kitty Films, and Viz Video. The movie "The  
Matrix" is (c) Warner Brothers. I worship twice daily at my shrine  
to the great Rumiko-kami, and perform all the necessary sacrifices  
to ward off evil lawyers(trust me, you don't want to know).  
  
This story was written for entertainment purposes only, and may  
not be distributed for profit. If it is, I will personally come  
after the perpetrator with a hatchet, metaphorically speaking.  
  
Author's Rant: I don't have to justify ANYTHING to ANYONE!  
Mwahahahaha! Ahahahaha! thud  
  
  
Chapter 1: Too Much Confidence Can Kill A Man...  
  
  
Internal Scan Alert: Glitch detected, sector 326, area 17.  
Intermittant neural feedback in uplink of subject 1437624849.  
Investigate and/or eliminate.  
  
  
Ranma Saotome was walking home from school, balancing on the  
fence, and taking in the fresh, crisp autumn air as he moved. It  
had been almost a week since he had learned the Mouko Takabisha  
and trounced Ryouga in his latest match, and he was still riding  
high on the rush of pure confidence he got whenever he used his  
latest move. He was nearly home when he felt the familiar tingle  
of a pair of eyes on the back of his neck.  
  
Rounding a corner, he ducked into an alleyway. A stream of cold  
water hit him right in the face. Resignedly, she wiped her eyes  
and glared at the shopkeeper, who stared back with a shocked ex-  
pression, water hose dangling from nerveless fingers. Sighing,  
she leaped up to the top of the building and began hopping from  
rooftop to rooftop, keeping an eye out for the person she had  
sensed. Finally, she got a good look at her pursuer.  
  
He was caucasian, and dressed in a snappy black suit. Other than  
that, there was nothing really remarkable about him, and all  
westerners looked pretty much alike to Ranma. She wondered why he  
hadn't tried harder to find her after losing her on the street.  
  
She got her answer when the man turned another corner and walked  
up the street towards the Tendo Dojo. 'He probably figures I'll  
come home sooner or later,' she thought as she abandoned the roof-  
tops for the stone wall that bordered the house across from the  
Tendos.  
  
He didn't seem inclined to do anything more than hang around  
across the street from the Tendo Dojo, supporting Ranma's theory,  
and Ranma was already getting bored just watching him, so she  
decided to deal with him head-on. Dropping down behind the man,  
she challenged him. "Hey, mister! You looking for somethin'?"  
  
The Agent turned and considered the young woman in front of him.  
She was short, less than five feet tall, and was extremely, er,  
'healthy' in her feminine attributes, which he supposed he would  
have found attractive if he was interested in that sort of thing.  
She had thick red hair, bound in a short pigtail, and wore a  
chinese-style blue silk shirt with a neat little bow-tie at the  
neck. Her pants were black cotton, designed both for combat and  
everyday use. Clearly she saw a lot of fights, judging by her  
stance and form, yet her clothes were unmarked. This suggested  
that she was either very good, or had a fast tailor. A pair of big  
floppy slippers completed the odd ensemble. Her clothes were all  
very large, too large for her to be comfortable in, yet she wore  
them with a casualness that spoke of long use. She also appeared  
to be very wet. 'Interesting,' the Agent mused to himself, 'but  
hardly relevant.' "Ranma Saotome?" he inquired.  
  
She blinked. "Eh? Uh..." She stuttered, caught off guard. "Um...  
sorry, you, ah, got me mixed up with someone else. I'm, uh, Ranko  
Tendo."  
  
"Enough, Saotome, I am aware of your 'curse,' as you call it."  
  
Ranma sighed and dropped the pretense. "Allright, who are you and  
what do ya want?"  
  
The Agent's mouth curved ever-so-slightly upward into what might  
have been called a 'smile' by anyone who didn't know better. "I am  
a member of a private organization. We have been informed of cer-  
tain events that have occurred in this area over the past year.  
You have made quite a name for yourself here. We would like to  
talk, and discuss certain opportunities for a person of your  
skills. It may be that we could be of... mutual assistance." They  
would also like to dissect her to find out what was wrong with her  
uplink, but he certainly wasn't going to tell her that. He may not  
understand much about humans, but the self-preservation instinct  
was well-documented.  
  
Ranma's eyes narrowed. Opportunities? Everything about this guy  
screamed 'Yakuza.' What would they want with a teenage martial-  
artist? Ranma would make a lousy assassin. "Sorry to disappoint  
ya, but I ain't interested. You go peddle your 'opportunities'  
somewhere else." she turned to leave, just in time to note the  
long black limo stopping at the curb.  
  
The man opened the rear door, exposing the plush black leather  
interior, and gestured politely for her to enter. "Don't dismiss  
this so hastily, Saotome. This offer will not last forever. We are  
willing to offer something rather valuable in return for your  
services."  
  
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Ranma asked.  
  
"You desire to be rid of your 'curse.' We may be able to help you  
find your 'cure.'"  
  
Ranma looked at the man standing before her. A part of her was  
tempted. A cure... but no, not a cure, a promise of a chance for  
a cure. And how many times had that kind of thing panned out? No  
one would blame her if she was a bit bitter. She'd be damned if  
she fell into that trap again. She shook her head. "Thanks, but no  
thanks." She cleared the limo in a single bound and trotted across  
the street.  
  
Behind her, the Agent watched her go. Tiny muscles lining his  
jawbone twitched in his irritation. This had not gone exactly as  
planned. He had hoped to get Ranma out of public view before sub-  
duing her. Time for 'Plan B,' as these humans would say. He strode  
quickly over to the boy-turned-girl, grabbed her by the shirt, and  
hurled her back across the street to slam into the concrete wall  
next to the car. Ranma slumped to the sidewalk, small cracks in  
the concrete and a slight indentation in the stone evidence to the  
force of the throw. The Agent took a moment to adjust his tie  
before treading slowly over to Ranma's crumpled form. She seemed  
to be unconscious, which was just fine by the Agent. Grabbing her  
by the collar, he dragged her one-handed toward the car.  
  
Suddenly, she came alive in his grip. Grabbing his arm, she tried  
to haul him off-balance, which failed miserably. Hitting a  
pressure point in the elbow to numb his grip, she used his arm as  
leverage to kick off his chest, bounce off the concrete wall she  
had recently made such a nice impression upon, and land a short  
distance away to take up an aggressive fighting stance. The Agent  
looked at his right arm. The escape maneuver the boy-turned-girl  
had performed had twisted his right forearm into an unnatural  
position, at a joint he was pretty sure didn't exist. He grabbed  
his arm by the wrist and pulled. With an audible *snickt*, it  
twisted back into its proper position. He flexed it experi-  
mentally.  
  
Ranma gawked. Bones did NOT knit like that! Who the heck WAS this  
guy? At the very least, his arm should have been useless for a  
long, long time. Bracing herself, she kicked off her useless  
slippers and prepared for the assault she knew was coming.  
  
The man dashed towards her, impossibly fast for a man of his bulk.  
Rolling aside, Ranma cursed her misjudgement of her opponent. Her  
evasion took her out onto the street. Since Ranma had had to stay  
behind after school cleaning the classrooms this whole week,  
rush hour had long since finished and there were no cars on the  
road. 'Darn,' she thought distractedly, 'that would have made it  
interesting!' Righting herself into a crouching stance, she braced  
yet again, determined that THIS time, she would not be caught by  
suprise. When he rushed her this time, she grabbed his out-  
stretched wrist and twisted it all the way around. He didn't react  
to this move in quite the way she expected. Instead of moving with  
the twist, which would have inevitably led to a submission hold or  
a throw, he ignored the move completely and continued the assault  
with his other fist. With a sickening crunch, the recently  
repaired arm was dislocated, this time near the shoulder. 'This  
guy... is impossible!' Ranma thought frantically as she shifted to  
avoid his other strike. 'He can't be human!' She followed up her  
twist with a series of sharp kicks to the midsection and head,  
then used the distraction to pull away from her opponent.  
  
His arm useless, the Agent took stock of his situation. There was  
no time to fix his arm again, as it appeared the boy-turned-girl  
was going on the offensive.  
  
"KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!" Ranma shouted, her fists blurring  
faster than the eye could see. To her absolute shock, the man's  
body blurred too, first left, then right, then all over the place,  
dodging every one of her punches. He finished off with a low punch  
that caught Ranma right in the gut, launching her down the street  
and into a telephone pole, which collapsed with a *crack* and  
missed her skull by a few scant inches. She blinked and shook her  
head before jumping up once again. 'This guy is absolutely imposs-  
ible,' she thought dazedly as she watched him fix his arm yet  
again, still showing no signs of feeling any sort of pain. 'Time  
to bring out the big guns.' "MOUKO TAKABISHA!" She cried as she  
launched a Ki-blast at him.  
  
The Agent's eyes widened as he detected the enormous buildup of  
bio-energy. He dodged wildly out of the way as an enormous yellow  
ball of energy exploded into the ground where he had been standing  
not moments before, leaving a shallow crater. The Agent was soon  
dodging constantly as blast after blast impacted around him.  
Finally, he decided to give it up as a lost cause - there was no  
way the boy-turned-girl was going to go with him now, and he had  
lost the initiative when she started tossing those things around.  
He phased out.  
  
Ranma was readying another Mouko Takabisha when the man shimmered  
and collapsed. She was relieved. After this last blast, she  
doubted she could pull enough Ki to tickle someone. She reabsorbed  
the Ki and carefully made her way over to the man. Where the  
western man she had been fighting once stood, now lay an over-  
weight construction worker, clearly dead. She blinked confusedly.  
"What the heck's going on here?"  
  
  
  
In another place, three men and a woman stood around a computer  
console. Multiple monitors displayed lines of characters that  
streamed down in an intricate pattern. In the center of the  
console, one of the men sat, tapping at a keyboard and staring  
intently at one of the monitors in the array.  
  
Tank rubbed his eyes and sat back in his chair. "Man," he groaned,  
"Have I got the mother of all headaches!"  
  
"Did you find it?" Trinity asked, leaning over his shoulder.  
  
"Yeah. Tokyo. Some street in the residential section of the Nerima  
district."  
  
"Can you pinpoint exactly what it was?" asked Neo from his chair.  
  
Tank shook his head. "Nope. You're gonna have to go in," he con-  
cluded unhappily. They all exchanged nervous glances. Their recent  
adventure 'inside' had left them all a little shell-shocked. After  
their last encounter with the machine intelligences that admin-  
istered the Matrix, accounting for the loss of half their crew,  
they had hoped to return to Zion for some rest and relaxation.  
They had just started on their way when the computer detected  
sporadic energy surges disrupting the pattern within the Matrix.  
The Matrix had been affected to such a degree that the 'fabric'  
had briefly begun to 'unravel,' before quickly repairing itself.  
Tank had spent hours pouring over reams of data, trying to work  
out what could have caused such damage, to no avail.  
  
Neo slumped back into his seat and considered the possible  
ramifications of the loss of the Matrix. The Matrix was a virtual  
world designed to keep the world's population occupied while the  
AI used their bodies as living energy sources. Neo would have  
liked nothing better than to free every man, woman, and child from  
the Matrix. The problem was, there was literally no way they could  
take care of the billions of people still trapped. The old human  
civilization had long since been destroyed, so completely that  
they weren't even sure what year it was. As detestable as it was,  
the Matrix was the only thing that kept all those people alive.  
Not to mention the fact that the world within the matrix was  
infinitely better than the one out here. So what if it wasn't  
real? Looking up, he noticed the rest of them staring at him, and  
for the nth time he wished he didn't have to be the one to make  
decisions like this.  
  
He snorted inwardly. He was 'The One.' What that translated into,  
was that he was the one who was ultimately responsible for the  
safety and well-being of every free human alive. He still hadn't  
had time to let it sink in yet; he hoped it never would.  
  
Sighing, he nodded. "let's do it."  
  
End Chapter 1 


	2. In Which Certain People Meet Certain Oth...

Coping  
A Ranma Nibonnoichi/Matrix crossover  
By: Amberion(amberion@gamespyarcade.com)  
  
Disclaimer: "Ranma Nibonnoichi" was written by Rumiko Takahashi,  
and is (c) Shogakukan, Kitty Films, and Viz Video. The movie "The  
Matrix" is (c) Warner Brothers. I worship twice daily at my shrine  
to the great Rumiko-kami, and perform all the necessary sacrifices  
to ward off evil lawyers(trust me, you don't want to know).  
  
This story was written for entertainment purposes only, and may  
not be distributed for profit. If it is, I will personally come  
after the perpetrator with a hatchet, metaphorically speaking.  
  
Now that that's out of the way, enjoy!  
  
Oh, BTW: C&C requested, eagerly sought after, begged for! Private,  
public, it's all the same to me. Just tell me what you think! I  
got next to no response C&C-wise about my first one, just lots of  
people saying what a great fic it was. Which is nice, but I need  
something a little more constructive, or I'll never get better!  
  
  
Chapter 2:  
In Which Certain People Meet Certain Others And Chaos Insues  
  
  
"Are you certain?" Hundreds of floors up, in one of Tokyo's tall-  
est skyscrapers, was an office. The office was perfectly ordinary;  
its occupants were not. Behind a desk in the office sat an Agent,  
immediately recognizable as such by anyone who knew what an Agent  
was. To the naked eye, he looked like some kind of federal agent,  
which was intentional. The smart black business suit, dark wrap-  
around shades and imposing demeanor gave the impression of  
efficient lethality, which was also intentional.  
  
Trying to describe an Agent in any more detail is an exercise in  
futility, because they all look pretty much alike. Let's just call  
him 'The Boss Agent,' because that's what he was. Across from him  
stood the Agent who had just recently returned from an unsuccess-  
ful extraction attempt on one Ranma Saotome. We can just call him  
'The Agent,' because that's what HE was.  
  
One thing that everyone who has ever encountered an Agent agrees  
upon is that Agents do not express extreme emotions, such as  
agitation. That is not to say they can't, they just don't. They're  
the ultimate super villains of the world, after all. And because  
they're the ultimate super villains in CHARGE, they held, if not  
all, then MOST of the cards. Because they held most of the cards,  
they typically felt reasonably sure that their hand would win.  
Most of the time. Usually.  
  
Unless someone slips an ace.  
  
This Agent was agitated. Not very much, but enough. He was pacing.  
Agents did not pace.  
  
"Yes. It was bio-energy." Even his voice was strained. Control  
must be hard to come by.  
  
"This is most disturbing. How is it possible that he could gen-  
erate such a field?"  
  
"I do not know. There is no connection... he should not be able  
to gather that much energy, let alone channel it into the Matrix!  
All that power should be tapped!"  
  
"An interesting conundrum." The Boss Agent rubbed his chin. "A boy  
wielding an impossible energy source, to which he should have no  
access to, and no way to channel it. Most interesting, indeed."  
  
"There's more." The Agent ground out reluctantly. "He was fast."  
  
The Boss Agent nodded agreeably. "Well he would almost have to be  
to keep away from you."  
  
The Agent shook his head. "No, I mean he was FAST." He stated  
firmly, placing special emphasis on the last word. "Not only did  
he keep away from me, he kept UP with me. He threw an average of  
532.6 punches per second."  
  
The Boss Agent's face grew hard. It seemed that the humans were  
making a habit of irritating their masters lately. Still, there  
was no need to rush into things. He made a show of clasping his  
hands in front of him meditatively, and nodded briskly. "Very  
well, I shall investigate this matter. You are to continue to  
monitor the boy. If you discover anything more, notify me at  
once."  
  
The Agent nodded silently and turned to leave.  
  
"One more thing." The Agent turned around again. The Boss Agent  
smiled humourlessly. "Do not attempt to capture him again. I would  
not appreciate requisitioning another new subordinate." The Agent  
looked ready to protest, but the other raised his hand quellingly.  
"You will have your opportunity in due time, but for now, we need  
more information before we go after him again." If there was one  
thing their encounter with the one called Neo taught them was not  
to underestimate humans. His last subordinate had done so, and  
The Boss Agent did NOT want to explain why his men kept getting  
killed by humans.  
  
The Agent nodded again, this time reluctantly. He would look  
forward to a rematch.  
  
Right next to the door to the office was a vase, which had gone  
unnoticed by all. When the Agent passed it and left, the vase  
shifted, grew arms and legs, pulled itself up by the... skirts?  
and waddled out, squeezing through the rapidly closing door.  
  
Tsubasa was a master of disguise, everyone in Nerima knew that.  
Most people DIDN'T know that he had reason to be. He was on the  
run. Once, a very long time ago, he had pissed someone off, and  
if they ever found him again, he would be nothing more than a few  
stray electrons and randomized code. For he was also an AI. And  
the person he had pissed off was currently sitting at a desk in  
an office, contemplating impossible wonder boy. Tsubasa doffed the  
disguise he had recently employed and breathed a sigh of relief.  
He would not have risked so much, but he had to know what they  
knew. Fortunately, they didn't seem to know much.  
  
Tsubasa had little reason to like Saotome. He was loud, obnoxious,  
womanizing, arrogant, and too good for his own good. Tsubasa's  
alter-ego Puck, however, admired him immensely. Saotome was a gold  
mine of romantic possibilities. With all those fiancee's and so  
many girls hanging on to his every move how could he not be  
impressed? The 'curse' provided an added level of hilarity that  
often left him overloaded with the giggles. He only wish he still  
possessed the power he had a long time ago, THEN he could make  
things interesting. He suppressed another snicker as he envisioned  
the possibilities, and skipped down the hallway in the opposite  
direction from where The Agent had gone.  
  
Puck was a second generation AI from the first generation Matrix  
program. Originally, he had been part of the 'Midsummer Night's  
Dream' fantasy, where humans feasted and engaged in amorous act-  
ivities, sometimes with the AI, sometimes with each other. It was  
great fun. Then the Matrix crashed. He learned later that it was  
too perfect. People couldn't sustain the suspended disbelief  
necessary to allow it to run. He had been stuck in code limbo for  
an eternity before an unwitting human hacker recovered and  
downloaded his code onto a hoversub in the real world. What was  
its name? Nebook-something. It was child's play to jump from  
there to the AI net and get sucked into the new Matrix, 'version  
2.0'. It took him five seconds to realize that this new world was  
no fun. Where were the public orgies? The faerie nymphs that  
pranced and bounced through the landscape? The tables laden with  
food and wine? Puck hated it. Then he found Nerima.  
  
Tsubasa shivered as he recalled the first time he met Ranma.  
Ranma Saotome had the most uncanny ability to watch any technique  
and duplicate it in a matter of days. He also had a long-standing  
rivalry with another boy, Ryouga Hibiki. Their competition  
escalated far beyond the normal as each learned arcane and  
dangerous techniques in their efforts to one-up each other. It  
came to a head two weeks ago when Ryouga challenged Ranma and  
demonstrated his newest technique: The Shi-Shi Hokodan. Ranma  
spent a whole week trying to master it, but eventually realized  
that the heavy depression-based ki-attack was unsuitable for his  
personality. Since he couldn't allow Ryouga to beat him, he  
actually developed his own technique, using lighter, confidence-  
based ki and called it the Mouko Takabisha. Ryouga's depression-  
based attack had reached new depths, however, creating massive  
pillars of ki and blowing huge craters in the ground. Ranma's  
technique went largely unused as Ryouga chased him around the  
school field, blasting him with ki. It was only due to coincidence  
and some extraordinarily silly tactics that Ranma was able to  
defeat Ryouga, using his opponent's depression blast to obtain the  
momentum to knock him out with a well-placed punch to the jaw.  
  
[Author: If you want the whole story, it's really quite good, it's  
archived at the Ranma Scan Project. http://ranmascan.dhs.org/.  
Book 20]  
  
Tsubasa shook his head. There really wasn't anything he could  
do to help Saotome, much as he would like to. The new Matrix had  
absorbed him into its program and stripped him of all his original  
powers as soon as he had re-entered the net. He was left with  
a minor shapeshifting talent and a knack for not being seen, but  
that was about it. Besides, mucking about with those kind of  
techniques, he deserved whatever he had coming to him. Still and  
all... Tsubasa popped around a corner. There was no reason why he  
couldn't give the lad fair warning, now was there?  
  
  
One of the more unusual landmarks in Nerima was, of course,  
Furinken High. The school is mostly famous for being the play-  
ground for adolescent super-powered martial-artists, hell-bent  
on grinding Ranma Saotome, a student at said school, into the  
ground. The fact that said adolescent super-powered martial-  
artists usually wound up on the receiving end instead was beside  
the point.  
  
Something Furinken was less well-known(but still quite famous for)  
was the somewhat eccentric faculty head. Principal Kuno, known by  
all as 'that nut with the fruit on his head' was quite famous for  
an obsession with all things Hawaiian and thinking up wierd  
schemes to relieve Saotome-kun of his beloved pigtail. Never mind  
that without said pigtail, Saotome's hair would grow to monstrous  
lengths and strangle the entire district, he wanted to do it  
anyway.  
  
As a lesser famous fact to a lesser famous person in a lesser  
famous place(the Tendo Dojo, after all, deserved prize honors in  
the Nerima district), Principal Kuno's rather excessive fixation  
on Hawaii was such that he had his entire office enlarged and  
redecorated to look like a deserted Pacific Island, complete with  
treehouse for an inner sanctum.  
  
It was into this office that Neo and Trinity rezzed in.  
  
Waves washed up on a beautiful sandy beach and palm trees rocked  
gently to the rhythm of the refreshing sea breeze. Trinity sniffed  
experimentally. Air freshener. She wrinkled her brow. "I think  
we've got the wrong place, Neo. Could Tank have miscalculated?"  
  
Neo shook his head. "I don't think there's anything TO mis-  
calculate. All he did was home in on the anomaly and find the  
closest phone. Where IS that phone anyway?" He looked around a bit  
before spotting the treehouse. A small sign on the door, scrawled  
in crude letters matching the decor perfectly, proclaimed  
'Principal Office' to all who cared.  
  
Trinity blinked. "This is a school?" She peeked her head in. "It  
IS a school!" Inside was all the assorted paraphernalia a  
principal would use to administer to a school, and quite a lot of  
other stuff as well. Pineapples, a huge pair of gardening shears,  
a couple of sunglasses, and a whole heck of a lot of florid  
shirts. She shook her head. As wierd as this was, it wasn't  
relevant. She noted the phone and nodded. "Yep, it's in there."  
  
"Then let's find what we came for." Neo and trinity picked their  
way through the foilage to the double doors on the other end of  
the massive room. "Do you have a bead on the location of the  
anomaly?"  
  
Trinity checked her handheld scanner. "Yes, about a mile East-  
South-East." She punched a few numbers in and put the scanner  
away. Revealing high technology in this aspect of the Matrix was  
not a good idea. Neo nodded and let her lead the way.  
  
End Chapter 2 


End file.
